Big Goin's On

One reason the name of this blog, "Carter House of Chaos", is so appropriate is that more often than not, all big events seem to fall on the same day at the same time. This past weekend it was Prom and Social. Amelia was one of the prom committee chairs which meant the whole family was on the prom committee! Hahaha. We had 17 ft Eiffel towers along with trellises and Parisian lamposts in our garage all week. Not to mention a whole bunch of high school juniors! Social is the etiquette/party manners/ballroom dance thing that, as corny as it may seem to the rest of the world, is the THING TO DO for 7th - 9th graders in Augusta and surrounding towns. So Ben had that going on in the midst of all the prom activity. This is why I look and feel 57 instead of 47.


There is a park by the river in North Augusta where everybody goes to take pictures before such events - so at least both kids were headed to the same place beforehand. Trouble is - between the million kids for prom and the million more for social - the lovely river background was sorta corrupted by tons of camera-totin' moms and dads. And of course we were running late - but we made it and it was still fun!


Ben with his buddy Nick Butler. Ben and Nick have been hard-core BFFs for as long as I can remember. His mom and dad are our good friends and both families consider the other boy to be like another son of their own. They used to be the only family Ben would leave us to go anywhere with. Nick is quite a trip. He is one of the few of Ben's friends that Amelia actually enjoys hanging out with! He is part stand up comedian, part politician (like his dad who we are sure is about to become our next mayor)!

Ben and his Social partner Katie. Katie and Nick are first cousins, their grandparent's yard backs up to ours, and Katie's mom is one of Amelia's favorite teachers at the high school. I'm glad North Augusta is still small-town enough that everyone feels kinda connected! 

I gave up years ago trying to take a photo that captures what it's like to see 2,000 teenagers on the floor of a civic center doing the waltz, foxtrot and shag in tuxedos and ballgowns. It's fun to watch but hard to get a picture of, especially since all the parents are up in the arena seats. Here are a couple attempts to get Ben dancing and having himself a good time!

This is Nick and Ben again with another friend, Jacob. I love this picture. They look like such little men.

Then there was prom!

Before Ben headed off to Social we got a shot of him with Amelia and Clay. 

There were so many people out there calling each other to come take a picture that I didn't know if I was coming or going - but I managed to get a cute one or two of Amelia and Clay by themselves. I think this is my favorite.

 Shelby and Kelly - two of Amelia's best friends.

Kelly is like Nick - an extended part of the family. A few weeks ago she brought over baby pictures and put them on our fridge. She said she was the only member of the family that wasn't already represented there!

Here are Clay, Amelia and Kelly with her prom date Russell. We all loved Russell until a week or so ago - when his ultra high SAT and ACT scores resulted in a personal invitation (IN HIS JUNIOR YEAR!) to attend Clemson. No application necessary! Now we hate him. Hahaha! There's Gangee and my friend Beth chatting it up in the background.

Amelia with more of her friends.

One of Kelly and Amelia's favorite pastimes is tormenting Jake. Jake is my friend Cindy's son. They have grown up together and back when Amelia took Social, he was her partner, so you've probably seen him in photos before! Bless his heart.

This was Amelia's dinner group - Kelly and Russell again along with another best bud of hers, Amy, and her date Conner. I tried to get them to go somewhere more elegant and exciting than Carrabba's - but they said FOOD was more important to them than FANCY, so I just shut up and let them do their thing! 

Well, it was chaotic and I'll never find that magic number of hours that we need to start getting ready ahead of time that actually gets us there without having a coronary- but it was still a good night! They both had a great time, so I guess that's all that matters!